A mother of two boys is fuming and asking for justice after a police officer searched her sons at gunpoint.
Casondra “Cassi” Pollreis, from Springdale, Ark, has two sons Weston Young and Haden Young. She says that she wanted her boys to live in a world where people with guns and power are held to the same standards as the rest of society.
But she shared that their trust in police officers was ruined on January 8, 2018, when her kids were stopped at gunpoint, forced to lie on the ground, handcuffed, and searched.
Pollreis said: “On this cold, rainy night the boys had spent the evening with their grandparents and were walking the short distance back to my house. This walk home turned into a nightmare that still haunts them to this day because an inexperienced police officer in Springdale, Arkansas, overreacted to a dispatch report about some alleged gang members who had fled during a traffic stop earlier that evening.”
She explained that when Lamont Marzolf encountered her kids, who were just 12 and 14 at that time, he could have acted professionally and asked them some questions because they didn’t even match the description of the suspect, and they were just young kids walking back on their way home after spending some time with their grandparents.point 467 | 1
Pollreis shared: “In a just and reasonable world, this conversation between my children and officer Marzolf would have resolved the situation and everyone could have gone on with their lives. Instead, he jumped out of his patrol car, drew his weapon, pointed it at my children, and escalated the situation beyond all bounds of decency.”
She continued: “Within a minute of this event, as is clear in dashboard camera footage, I approached Marzolf, told him I am their mother, and let him know they were just walking home. His response was to yell at me, point a Taser at me and order me to “get back”.
“Their stepfather also came and identified the boys. He was ignored. Three minutes after that, their grandparents approached the scene, identified my sons, and said they had just left their house,” Pollreis added.
But despite every conceivable fact pointing to the conclusion that Marzolf had the wrong people, her kids still had a weapon pointed at them, were forced to the ground, handcuffed and searched, and had their trust in law enforcement betrayed.
The furious mom said that this horrific event, she filed a lawsuit in federal court against Officer Marzolf to vindicate the rights of her kids and let them know that what happened wasn’t right. It was also her way to try and ensure this sort of traumatic event doesn’t happen to anyone else’s children.
However, after the lawsuit began, Officer Marzolf filed a motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity, which she admitted she knew nothing about.
Qualified Immunity is a type of legal immunity that balances two important interests, the need to hold public officials accountable when they exercise power irresponsibly and the need to shield officials from harassment, distraction, and liability when they perform their duties reasonably.
Pollreis exclaimed: “If the story I outlined above isn’t “egregious” or a violation of our Fourth Amendment rights, I’m just not sure what would ever rise to that level. The lower court denied Marzolf’s motion, but he appealed the qualified immunity issue to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, which reversed the lower court’s decision and, in essence, shielded Marzolf from liability for his actions.”
She also said that she was batling Qualified Immunity on her separate claim involving the officer threatening her with a Taser while pointing a gun at her boys at the same time.
She said: “He drew a dangerous weapon at me all because I was trying to explain to him that the boys, he got under the gun were my two sons walking home from dinner. To deescalate the situation, I had to leave my kids alone with the officer.”
She shared that it still haunts her to this day and regardless of the outcome of this 8th Circuit appeal, she and her boys have gotten some comfort from the fact that they are fighting to do what’s right and will continue to do so until justice is served.